Edinburgh Castle: Day 39 – Scotland 2017

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14 May 2017

Edinburgh welcomed us back with beautiful sunny weather. Just as we had at the beginning of our Scotland adventure, we checked into the Gil Dun Guest House. This time, we had a quirky attic room, which is our absolute favorite when it comes to staying in older homes.

After a quick nap to cure a headache, we were out on the town, walking towards High Street. Our goal for the day? Edinburgh Castle.

Edinburgh Castle

Perched high above the city sits the mighty Edinburgh Castle. If it gives you an inkling of Hogwarts vibes, it should, as it was the inspiration for the school of witchcraft and wizardry. The castle may have found new recognition in the pop culture world, but it has a long and storied past that speaks for itself.

People have always known that the high rocky outcropping was an incredible vantage point. There have been fortifications of one kind or another on the site for many hundreds of years. The earliest structure was an Iron Age hillfort. Because of that incredible vantage point, it’s no wonder that other people wanted it. This resulted in many sieges and attacks upon the forts and castles that were built there. In fact, Edinburgh Castle holds the impressive title of the most besieged location in Britain.

The castle has grown and evolved over the years, with bigger and better defenses added to its battlements. When you visit, take note of the many impressive canons. At one point in history, these were the best weapons money could buy. Today, they are mere decorations of a bygone era. You can, however, still hear a more modern big gun fired almost every day. The one o’clock gun goes off, well, at one o’clock. This happens every day but Sundays and a few holidays. It may not be one of the old cannons, but it’s still incredibly impressive.

Edinburgh Castle was once home to many royals, including Mary Queen of Scots. At the castle, you can view the crown jewels which were first used in Mary’s coronation. The Stone of Destiny is also on display, finally home in its rightful place. There is so much more to this incredible castle. Now, even though it is still partly used by the military, you can visit and see it all up close for yourself.

Our Final Castle Of Scotland

If we’re being perfectly honest, we were rather disappointed in Edinburgh Castle. We were incredibly surprised to come to the realization that it was our least favorite castle out of the nearly 30 castles we’d seen during our trip. After discussing it later, we both decided that it had nothing to do with the castle at all, which was actually incredible. It was the people.

This was by far the busiest place we’d been to and we were not prepared for that. There were people who had literally just gotten off of a plane and were walking around with all of their luggage. All of it. And there were tons like that. It was crowded and loud and very rushed. We went in to see the crown jewels and were shuffled through the building in a single file line that never stopped moving. Once we got into the room with the jewels, we couldn’t even stop to look at them. The line simply kept moving. We took in as much as we could as we slowly walked by, and then we made out way back out into the sun.

Edinburgh Castle has so many incredible things to see, including St Margaret’s Chapel, the Scottish National War Memorial, Great Hall, Royal Palace, and much more. If you’re hungry, you can also grab a bite to eat.

I’m rather disappointed in how little we saw while there. I think we just got overwhelmed and decided to go elsewhere. We didn’t even take many pictures. Looking back at their website, we missed out on quite a lot. Our advice? Go in the off-season and be there when they open.

A Spot Of Shopping

After seeing the castle, we stopped at their gift shop. I was on the search for a tweed bag that I’d seen earlier in our trip but hadn’t bought. Mightily regretting that choice, I was hoping to find another and snap it up as quickly as possible. We were unsuccessful at the castle gift shop, but I did find it at the very next place we looked. After that, we wandered through the shops of High Street. We bought a few souvenirs, a few gifts, and Billy bought me a satchel that I still use and absolutely adore. After working up an appetite, we had an early lunch and then made our way back to our B&B.

We didn’t mean to, but we ended up laying out every item in our possession and then packing it all for our trip home, which was fast approaching. After nearly 5 weeks, we’d acquired quite a bit. Luckily, I’d found the perfect tweed overnight bag to pack all of those books into!
Cheers,
Lydia and Billy